It's lottery time again, with 2,593 MHADA flats on offer

Mumbai, May 3: It's raining houses in the Maximum City, Mumbai as the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) is all set to put its low cost houses in the market. The public can make use of these offers through a lottery system that will kickstart from May 31. A total of 2,593 apartments in Mumbai and Mira Road are up for grabs.

The eagerly anticipated MHADA forms are available on their official website from May 3 to 19th. They can be duly filled online till May 21. The criteria for those who can avail these apartments are varied. Of the 876 flats available in Mumbai, 172 are for the high-income group that has a monthly income of more than Rs 40,000; while 234 flats are for the middle-income group that has an income limit in the range of Rs 20,000- Rs 40,000 a month. [UPDATE: Technical snag quash hopes for MHADA flat]

The flats in Mumbai are located at Powai, Magathane, Sion, Kurla, Malvani and Charkop. A majority of the Mira Road flats are meant for the low income groups that has a monthly salary of between Rs 8,000 and Rs 20,000 and the financially weaker sections with a monthly salary of less than Rs 8,000.

Vaishali Wagh, public relations officer, MHADA has been quoted as saying, “The lottery will be conducted in a transparent manner by a computerised draw and the procedure will be overseen by eminent people.” The draw will be overseen by former Lokayukta Suresh Kumar, state information technology secretary Rajesh Agarwal and professor Abhay Karandikar from IIT Bombay.

Wagh added that the need for more number of flats for low-income groups was justified and said, “As people with low incomes cannot afford to buy flats from private builders, our focus is to create more housing stock for them.”

In the previous years, the MHADA flats have been a huge draw with more than nine lakh applicants trying their luck for the 12,216 houses in the last 4 years.